Category Archives: Environment

Environment, Rainwater Catchment, Residential Rainwater Collection

Where Will the Next Water Crisis Happen?

640px-Salmon_swimming_upstream_in_Ketchikan_Creek_3Flint Water Crisis Deepens

As investigations deepen, the Flint, Michigan water crisis has exposed “leadership failures at every level” (according to an article in the Detroit Free Press quoting U.S. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz), citing “festering” long term problems and questioning the EPA’s level of attention as lead levels in Flint’s water rose to poisonous intensities.

As such, we’d like to bring you a throwback Thursday post to highlight an agency that is being proactive about ensuring that homeowners have access to and control of their water supplies.

Last year, the Skagit County Planning Department issued its first residential building permit with rainwater collection as the sole source of water. This move came in response to the in stream flow rule, which impeded Skagit Valley residential property development. Read more…

We here at RainBank believe there are good folks at governmental agencies who are being progressive about ensuring public health and safety by providing ways for residents to have access to clean, safe drinking water – a basic human right.

Environment, Sustainability

Is it Time to Consider Rainwater Collection as a Viable Water Source?

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biohazard-295141_640Why should rainwater collection be considered as a viable water source?

When public water supplies become damaged or compromised, especially due to human error, we must consider other viable options.

Over the last year we all have read articles about contamination of public water sources. The most recent in Flint Michigan has alarmed the nation. Old pipes in the infrastructure leached lead into the supply system caused by corrosive water when emergency managers switched water from Lake Harrow to the Flint River, affecting more than 1,000,000 people.

animas-river-pollutionIn August 2015, an estimated 3 million gallons of mine waste was released into a tributary, which flows into the Animas River near Durango Colorado. The mustard colored sludge contained high levels of arsenic, lead, and cadmium making the river and nearby wells unsafe for humans.

In April 2015, the nation’s largest electrical company Duke Energy was found guilty of contaminating nearby wells with heavy metals such as vanadium and chromium. Local streams and lakes were also affected from contaminants from Duke’s Coal ash pits.

Collecting rain makes sense. Whether you collect it in rain barrels or your storage needs require larger cisterns, rainwater collection and use has a host of benefits.

(c) Andrew Suryono, Indonesia, Entry, Nature and Wildlife Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography AwardsHere are two main reasons why you should change your way of thinking about rainwater collection:

  • Rainwater can be a clean, safe, reliable source of potable and non-potable water
  • Rainwater is relatively clean to begin with and if collected, conveyed, stored, filtered and disinfected properly, it can meet the needs of small scale watering to whole house potable use
Environment

Good News For Drought Watchers

Washington State Drought MonitorHere’s some good news for Washington state drought watchers – the Department of Ecology has lifted the drought emergency and the governor’s Executive Water Emergency Committee recommends the drought declaration not be continued for this year.

More Good News

Heavy rains and snow have pulled Western Washington completely out of the woods, with the eastern portion of the state quickly following suit. The  U.S. Drought Monitor still shows eastern Washington in the dry to moderate zone, but compared with the report from just three months ago, the turnaround is sizable.

Since much of Washington’s water supply comes from snowpack accumulations, and which are more than 100 percent of normal for this time of year, current conditions just don’t meet the criteria required for the declaration of a drought emergency.

Weather forecasts for through March are for warmer, drier conditions as a result of El Niño, so Washington’s Water Supply Advisory Committee will continue to monitor water supply.